Published 5:27 pm, Tuesday, April 2, 2013

At a March 25 meeting, Kendall County commissioners decided on a split vote not to join the organization. The next night, the Boerne City Council voted unanimously to join the road planning group. The decision now must be OK'd by Gov. Rick Perry or his designee.

The MPO, created by federal law in areas with population of 50,000 or more, is responsible for guiding the region's transportation planning process, said Sid Martinez, director of the MPO. It has no regulatory authority. As currently configured, it covers all of Bexar County and small portions of Comal and Guadalupe counties.

Martinez told Kendall County commissioners on March 11 that the San Antonio MPO must compete with larger MPOs in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin for federal dollars that are allocated based on a region's configuration, which is determined by U.S. census findings. The federal money is available for all transportation projects except local roads, Martinez said.

News Channel

Because the San Antonio metropolitan area showed an increase in population in the 2010 census, an expansion must be considered, Martinez said.

“I have to wonder why in the world we'd be interested in getting involved in Bexar County planning at all,” Reinarz told the commissioners. “This is a federally mandated program for cities over 50,000, so this is a federal government activity.…It would kind of be like a gorilla in the room.

“I think they're looking at our federal funds, which they are then going to accumulate and allocate back out to us.”

“After the census, (MPO) did come into Kendall County through Fair Oaks Ranch. They are saying they are offering the whole county the opportunity to join in voluntarily. Personally I find no overwhelming desire to join in; however, the city of Boerne does.

“Most of the big mobility problems we have here in Kendall County are within the city limits of Boerne. So I will move for Kendall County to decline the offer and recommend our potential seat on the board be given to the city of Boerne,” Miertschin said.

The next opportunity to expand the MPO would be after the 2020 census, commissioners learned.

Fair Oaks Ranch Mayor Cheryl Landman and Boerne Assistant City Manager Jeff Thompson are part of an MPO boundary work group that's been formed to develop recommendations for a boundary expansion.

Thompson told the Boerne City Council on March 26 that Boerne's involvement is voluntary, but in the future, may become mandatory.

According to the MPO's Public Involvement Coordinator, Scott Ericksen, the Kendall County-Boerne area isn't the only one being invited during this time of expansion. The New Braunfels area has been included in the urbanized area, meaning it likely will also join the MPO.

He said it's vital for partners to cooperate on a regional basis for two reasons.

“First, we need regional planning for transportation,” he said. “Second, it would put our MPO at serious disadvantage in competing for federal dollars if we were to remain as currently configured.”

Ericksen said other MPOs in the state have been expanding and thus grabbing a bigger piece of the funding pie.

He said expansion, if approved by the governor, will involve redrawing MPO boundaries, renaming the organization to reflect the regional emphasis and reconfiguring the board. Currently, 14 of 19 board members have San Antonio or Bexar County connections.

Officials say MPO membership won't change the relationship with TxDOT, which selects projects for funding and sets the timetable, but joining the MPO would make the participants eligible for more categories of federal funds, specifically funds for urban corridors and the metropolitan surface transportation program.

Ericksen said the public can follow MPO policy decisions on its website: www.sametroplan.org. Click on “policy board” and then select “full meeting package” to learn details of decisions.